Rise in “no party preference” voters for Primary Election

The California Secretary of State office is reporting a massive increase in the number of voters not registering with a political party.

These independent voters now make up a quarter of the population.

Salinas residents Jose and Olga Monarrez have remained registered Democrats, but Jose tells me he isn’t thrilled with what he has seen from our political parties.

“The way that the government is being run right now is through strife and not building bridges across the aisle,” Monarrez said.

While they have remained faithful to the Democratic party because of its stances on issues they care about, many others have decided not to affiliate themselves with any party.

“No party preference” has overtaken Republican as the 2nd most common registration. While Democrats increased since the last midterm Primary, it has been a two percent drop since 1998. In the GOP, it is 10 percent.

“Just because someone is registered as a no-preference voter, doesn’t mean they won’t vote
Republican values,” Rob Bernosky, Regional Vice Chair of the California Republican Party, said.

Bernosky remains positive these numbers don’t reflect how people will vote in Tuesday’s primaryu election. “Lower taxes, family values, less dependence on government – there’s still a lot of people
that feel that way.”

The Monterey County Democratic Party Chair, Alan Haffa, is encouraged. “We definitely see these registration numbers as very very positive.”

Haffa says the Republicans should be worried, and the change is coming because of economic improvements under Governor Jerry Brown. “From a 27 billion dollar deficit that he inherited from Governor Schwarzenegger and Republican leadership, to a 20 billion dollar surplus.”

While they differ on how to improve the state, they agree political swings happen at the local level.”

“We all need affordable housing. We all need clean water. And we all want to make sure that people
are treated fairly,” Haffa said.
“Let’s lower the taxes. Let’s have reasonable approaches to the environment and climate change, instead of taxing the people that are hurt the most by it,” Bernosky said.